A survey has revealed that over 70 percent of restaurants, eateries and fast food joints across Nigeria serve foods cooked with too much salt. By doing this, they breach compliance to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control’s (NAFDAC) rule of 2g sodium per day, an equivalence of 5g salt per day. The investigation showed that restaurant foods are high in salt to make them more palatable. Sodium have been discovered to preserve and enhance the taste of packaged foods.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), sodium is a significant nutrient but it increases the risk of heart diseases, hypertension, stroke and even premature death when consumed in excess. Sodium is mainly sourced in table salt (sodium chloride) but it can also be sourced in sodium glutamate. WHO recent Global report on sodium intake reduction showed that out of all WHO member States, only five percent are guided by mandatory and comprehensive sodium reduction policies while about 73 percent, including Nigeria, are yet to comply with full implementation of these policies.
NAFDAC creates awareness on health risks of high salt intake.
This recent Global report by WHO also reveals that the world is far behind in achievement of its global target of 30 percent reduction of sodium intake by 2025. The estimation of the global average salt intake is 10.8 grammes per day. Excessive intake of salt contributes to diet and nutrition-related deaths. The Professor of Community and Public Health Nutrition, affiliated to the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, added that excessive intake of salt causes imbalance of electrolytes due to the rapid increase in sodium. High concentration of sodium also leads to distortion of water balance in the body.
Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, stated that the agency is ensuring creation of awareness concerning the health risks associated with excessive salt intake. She added that the regulatory measures of the agency is obligated to encourage food outlets to reduce salt content during food preparation and inform consumers of the negative effects of high salt consumption on their health, thereby increasing demand for less salty foods. With this, defaulting companies do not necessarily have to be penalized.
Global target, to reduce sodium dietary intake by 30% in ’25.
Recently, there have been introduction of some strategies to make sure food producers produce healthy food products for the populace. These strategies include implementation of compulsory nutrition labelling of packaged foods to ensure customers take known decisions on their food nutrient intake, salt inclusive. There is likewise a collaboration between the agency and academia, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders in aspects of research and monitoring of salt intake among the population, sources of salt in food, and others.
Additionally, NAFDAC has introduced an approved food grade table or cooking salt regulation which has been passed into law which is now entrenched in the law. This law ensures the quality of food-grade salt in the country. Nigeria works in line with the global recommendation of WHO concerning intake of dietary sodium at levels less than 2g of sodium per day, below 5g of salt per day. Nigeria is working in accordance with WHO global targets of reducing dietary sodium consumption by 30 percent in 2025.
High salt intake causes calcifications in heart arteries.
Reduction of sodium content by reformulation of processed foods has proven to be a good strategy for reduction of the population’s consumption of sodium. This strategy is particularly effective in places that record high consumption of processed foods. A high salt diet destabilizes normal blood pressure, causing high blood pressure which might in turn lead to cardiovascular diseases. According to a study by a group of researchers, the higher the salt intake, the higher the risk of calcifications in the arteries of the heart and neck region.
Related Link
WHO: Website
High sodium intake and its health risks. – WHO says high salt intake increases risk of hypertension, heart diseases. – Express your point of view.
It is essential to monitor your food intake to avoid excessive sodium intake, which can negatively impact your health in several ways. You should aim to consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium daily, and even less if you have high blood pressure or other health issues. Choosing fresh, nutrient-dense foods and avoiding processed and packaged foods can help you maintain healthy sodium levels in your diet.
We should be careful in what we take high salt can cause hypertension, heart diseases so we need to pay attention to salt consuming so we don’t consume too much that might lead to bad health in our body
More awareness should be created by all the concern organisations involve in maintaining proper health condition like WHO and the federal ministry health that consumption of much salt is very dangerous to someone health and can lead to so many diseases in the body.
We all needs to react promptly to this warning and stop the consumption of too much salt. Those in the local communities should be warned of the damage too much salt consumption can cause to our health.
High sodium intake and its health risks. Many people are suffering today because the fall victim of those intake of too much salt. Many people are not even aware of the danger. I think we should create more awareness to the public through social media and other platforms
We should be very careful with the way we take salt. There is need to protect our health and especially our liver which is meant to intoxicate it. Let’s ensure we eat healthy.
Many people are not aware of injecting more than the 2g of salt per day and the danger of it exceed the stipulated measurement. Massive awareness should be created in this regards to get people educated about it.
The health hazard pose by excess intake of salt is very alarming. Massive awareness should be created to inform and educate the populace of the possible danger of the excess intake of the salt exceeding 2g per day. Every eatries found guilty of excess salt should be shutdown.